USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Peabody > History Of Peabody Massachusetts > Part 7
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16
THE GREAT FIRE .- On September 22, 1843, a very destructive fire occurred in the South Parish, and con- sumed a large amount of property in the vicinity of the square, including the Second or South Congrega- tional Church, a new building partially completed, the Essex Coffee-house, and twelve other stores and houses, with a large number of sheds and outbuild- ings. The Unitarian Church and several other buildings caught repeatedly, but by great exertions of the citizens assisted by help from neighboring towns, the progress of the fire was checked after pro- perty valued at seventy-five thousand dollars had been destroyed, of which twenty-five thousand dollars was insured. The blow was a severe one, but the enterprise of the community soon replaced the burned buildings, and the town gained in appearance from the misfortune.
The war with Mexico was very unpopular through- out the town. Hon. Daniel P. King, of the South Parish, was at that time the Representative of the district in Congress, and he maintained the strongest opposition to the war, in which he was fully sup- ported by his constituents. On December 16, 1847, the town held a meeting, and resolutions drafted by John W. Proctor were passed condemning the war as an unrighteous one, and declaring against the
1015
PEABODY.
acquisition of territory by conquest; and among other resolutions was the following :
" While we acknowledge ' all men to be born free and equal,' we can- not consistently with this principle do anything whatever that shall have a tendency to extend that most disgraceful feature of our institu- tions, Domestic Slavery."
Only five men from the whole town of Danvers were engaged in the Mexican War.
CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION .- On the 16th of June, 1852, the town of Danvers celebrated the one hundredth anniversary of its separate municipal ex- istence. A procession illustrating the manners and customs of the early settlers, and brilliant with allegorical figures and representations of foreign cos- tume, was escorted by military forces and by the firemen of the town ; it was made up largely from the pupils of the public schools. An address by John W. Proctor and a poem by Andrew Nichols were delivered in the old South Church with music and religious exercises. After the exercises in the church a dinner was given in a canvas pavilion on the Crowninshield estate, at which many interesting addresses were given by the invited guests of the town, many of them distinguished in public life or eminent for historic learning. The full account of this very interesting anniversary celebration belongs more properly to the history of Danvers; but it was at this dinner that the first gift of George Peabody to his native town was offered, in a letter acknowledg- ing his invitation to the centennial celebration. In this letter he inclosed an envelope with a direction that its seal was not to be broken till the toasts were being proposed at the dinner. After a toast to George Peabody, the letter of acknowledgment was read, and the seal of the inclosed envelope broken. It contained a sentiment by Mr. Peabody, which has become the the motto of the endowments made by him for the benefit of education : "Education-A debt due from present to future generations. The letter continued :
"In acknowledgment of the payment of that debt by the generation which preceded me in my native town of Danvers, and to aid in its prompt future discharge, I give to the inhabitants of that town the sum of twenty thousand dollars, for the promotion of knowledge and moral- ity among them.
"I beg to remark, that the subject of making a gift to my native town has for some years occupied my mind, and I avail myself of your pres- ent interesting festival to make the communication, in the hope that it will add to the pleasures of the day.
"I annex to the gift such conditions only as I deem necessary for its preservation and the accomplishment of the purposes before named. The conditions are, that the legal voters of the town, at a meeting to be held at a convenient time after the 16th June, shall accept the gift, and shall elect a committee of not less than twelve persons, to receive and have charge of the same, for the purpose of establishing a Lyceum for the delivery of lectures, upon such subjects as thay bo designated by a committee of the town. free to all the inhabitants aider such rules as said committee may from time to time enact ; and that a Library shall be obtained, which shall also be free to the inhabitants, under the di- rection of the committee.
"That's suitable building for the use of the Lyceum shall be erected, at a cost, including the land, fixtures, furniture, &c., not exceeding Seven Thousand dollars, and shall be located within one-third of a mile of the Presbyterian Meeting House occupying the spot of that formerly
under the pastoral care of the Rev. Mr. Walker, in the South Parish of Danvers.
"That Ten Thousand dollars of this gift shall be invested by the town's committee in undoubted securities as a permanent fund, and the interest arising thereupon to be expended in support of the Lyceum.
"In all other respects I leave the disposition of the affairs of the Lyceum to the inhabitants of Danvers, merely suggesting that it might be advisable for them, by their own act, to exclude sectarian theology and political discussions forever from the walls of the institution.
"I will make one request of the committee which is, if they see no objection, and my venerable friend Capt. Sylvester Proctor should be living, that he be selected to lay the corner-stone of the Lyceum building."
As was stated by Mr. Proctor at the dinner, Mr. Peabody had been a generous contributor to the building of the Lexington Monument and also to the rebuilding of the old South Church when destroyed by fire. ' The same letter which inclosed the gift also contained a liberal subscription toward the erection of an appropriate monument at the grave of General Gideon Foster. Mr. Peabody soon afterward added ten thousand dollars to his original donation, and before 1856 had increased the foundation to fifty thousand dollars. During his last visit to this country, in 1869, he increased the amount of his gift to this In- stitute to two hundred thousand dollars.
For some years the difficulties which had been felt even in the early years of the town by reason of the distance between the North and South Parishes, and which had led to remedial legislation as long ago- as 1772, had been increasing ; and the time was soon to come when the division of the two districts became necessary. By an act of the Legislature, passed May 18, 1855, the new town of South Danvers was incor- porated, with boundaries nearly corresponding with those of the old middle precinct of Salem. The old northerly line of the South Parish was changed, add- ing a strip of territory to South Danvers; instead of the ancient line, running nearly east and west, the line now runs from the same easterly boundary north- west to the sharp bend of the Ipswich River, so that some of the historic localities of Salem Village are now within the limits of the newer town.
Shortly afterward, by an act of the Legislature, passed April 30, 1856, the ancient boundary between Salem and South Danvers was changed, and the boundaries of the new town have since been undis- turbed.
It has already been noted that when the original pet.tioners for the setting off of the middle precinct prepared their draft of a boundary, they asked to have a line run from Trask's mills to Spring Pond. The strong opposition shown in Salem to having so large a part of their common land thrown into the new precinct was no doubt the cause of the change made by the Legislative committee, who recom- mended that the line, after reaching what is known as Boston Street, should continue in the street along the Boston road to the Lynn line. This recommenda- tion was adopted ; no change was made at the time of the incorporation of Danvers as a district and as a
1016
HISTORY OF ESSEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.
town; and from 1710 to 1856, the houses on the op- posite sides of a road more than three miles long were in different municipal jurisdictions. The inconven- iences of such a boundary line were not so marked in the lower portion of the street, as the inhabitants be- longing to Salem were there not far separated from the other inhabited parts of Salem ; but as the road, well occupied with substantial houses, continued on towards Lynn, the Salem inhabitants became more and more remote from the interests of the town to which they belonged, and in the settlement at South Peabody, known from the earliest times as "the Rocks," neighbors whose interests were otherwise identical were forced to carry on double schools on opposite sides of the same street, and voted in differ- ent municipalities at places miles apart. It was a deep grievance, too, for the ardent temperance re- formers of Danvers, who had succeeded in suppressing the open sale of liquor in the town, to be confronted by liquor-selling taverns, such as the Naumkeag House and others of those times, which could be reached by thirsty Danvers men by merely crossing the street into Salem.
The line from Trask's, or Frye's, mills reached Boston Street at the tree known as the " Big Tree." From this boundary tree, the line of division ran along the easterly side of the road to Lynn. At the time of its establishment, in 1710, the main road to Lynn from Salem did not follow any of the now ex- isting streets in its turn to the south after crossing Poole's bridge over Strong Water Brook, but diverged from what is now Main Street at a point near Pier- pont Street, and continued in a southwesterly direc- tion till it joined what is now Washington Street near Aborn Street. This diagonal course of the old road appears very plainly on the rough map, on file in the State archives in the State library, which accom- panied the petition for setting off the middle precinct in 1710; and also upon a map of the division of the common lands of Salem, made about 1720, in the pos- session of Andrew Nichols, Esq., of Danvers. As time went on, the road which left Main Street at the Bell Tavern, or Eagle corner, where the Lexington monument now stands, became most used, and the old road at that point fell into disuse and was event- ually abandoned, though traces of it may still be found. The boundary line, of course, remained un- changed; and in 1840 the line was changed by act of the Legislature, by adding a strip to Danvers, bringing the boundary line two feet north of Sutton's store in Poole's Hollow, and then following near the brook to Aborn Street, and so to the Boston road. It was not till 1856 that the line between South Danvers and Salem was finally established, coinciding very nearly, in that part between Boston Street and Spring Pond, with the line marked out by the wisdom of the farmers of Brooksby in their petition for the incor- poration of the middle precinct. In exchange for this concession of territory, part of the territory of
South Danvers on the northerly side of Boston Street, between the Big Tree and the old burial-ground, was annexed to Salem by the same act. The inhabitants of the territory belonging to Danvers at the time of Mr. Peabody's gift to the town are, however, still en- titled to the privileges of the bequest. The present boundary line crosses the street near the westerly end of the old burial-ground.
It is stated in an article in the Wizard, published in 1862, that previously to the last change of bound- ary, the line ran through a house on Main Street, through a bed-room and across a bed, so that the heads of the occupants were in the city and their feet in the country.
CHAPTER LXXIII.
PEABODY-Continued.
Review of the Period from 1757 to 1855.
THE period from 1757 to 1855, during which the pres- ent township of Peabody was the South Parish of the town of Danvers, was marked by great changes accom- panying the growth of a large town from the commu- nity of six or seven hundred people dependent on ag- riculture for their support. The aspect of the old time village is still remembered by the older citizens, as it was described by Mr. George G. Smith at the Centennial Celebration : " It was a pleasant place, then, this old town of ours, when there were green fields and shady walks where now are dusty streets and busy factories. I shall never forget the old back way by the pond, with its locust-trees, loading the air in the season of blossoms with their honey-like fra- grance. And the pond, not as now shorn of its fair proportions, its green banks sloping gently down to the clear water, and bordered with bright rushes and flowery water-plants." The pastures came down toward the centre of the village, and a country quiet rested over all. In 1800 the population of the whole town of Danvers was 2643, and in 1820 it was 3646. The South Parish could claim about half of these numbers.+
GROWTH OF MANUFACTURES .- The tannery begun in 1739 by Joseph Southwick, the Quaker, continued to be carried on by the same family during the whole of this period. About 1770 Joseph Poor began to tan near "the Jane," now Central Street, and several of his descendants are still prominent in the same branch of productive industry. Dennison Wallis the Revolutionary patriot, had a tannery near the street which bears his name; and early in tl : present century Fitch Poole, Sen., and his brother Ward Poole, had tanneries near Poole's hollow, on the stream running into the North River. In 1855 there
1017
PEABODY.
were twenty-seven tanneries in South Danvers, with an annual product of 131,000 hides, valued at $660,- 000 ; 122 men were employed in this industry. There were also, in 1855, 24 currying establishments, fin- ishing leather of the value of $805,000, and employ- ing 153 hands.
The manufacture of morocco and lining-skins grew up in the second quarter of the present cen- tury, and in 1855 there was a product of 80,000 skins, valued at about $25,000, employing 117 hands, with a capital of $50,000.
{The boot and shoe trade, which also had its princi- pal growth as an industry since 1830, produced, in 1855, in the town, 747,600 pairs, valued at $597,259, and gave employment to 1043 hands, a considerable number of the employees being women.
The manufacture of chocolate was carried on by General Foster in the early years of the century at his mill-pond, off Foster's lane (now Foster Street), where were also bark-mills for grinding tan for the tanneries, and grist-mills. General Foster developed the water-power at his command with much skill and ingenuity, building a system of dams and canals. His mills were destroyed by fire in 1823. The manufacture of chocolate was also carried on by Francis Symonds, the host of the Bell Tavern; but the industry was long ago discontinued. V
At one time there were upwards of thirty pot- teries in the South Parish, mostly on " the lane," called "Garp Lane," or "Gape Lane," and also on Southwick's lane, now Lowell Street. During the War of 1812 the pottery from this region attained a wide celebrity, and great quantities were sold. The de- mand for the ware, which was chiefly of the coarser variety of brown ware, from which the bean-pots, flower-pots and jugs of the present day are made, di- minished after the war, owing to the cheapness with which a higher grade of imported ware could be obtained; and in 1855 only two establishments remained on Central Street, where the last surviv- ing pottery is still carried on; their product was then valued at $2300.
The Danvers Bleachery, an enterprise begun in 1847 by Elijah Upton and the Messrs. Walker, in 1855 bleached or colored 100 tons of goods, employing 60 men, with a capital of $150,000.
Glue was first made in South Danvers by Elijah Upton in 1817. Mr. Upton was one of the pioneers in manufactures, and was very successful in various branches. He made many improvements in methods, and in the glue business anticipated modern ideas, among other things being the first to o iml glue for conveniencein packing and use. In 1850 three glue factoriesept whi a capital of $40,000, prodused glue of the vas. In $120,000, employing 21 men.
Paual repese larger industries, and the ordinary ac- tiyade to throwing town in building, cabinet-making asame regulamestic occupations, there were, in 1855, talso the tals, producing articles valued at $35,000
yearly; two soap-factories, with a product worth $18,000, a patent-leather factory, a last factory, whose product was valued at $16,000, a box-factory, and working quarries of valuable stone, from which $5,000 worth of building and mill-stones were cut. In the days when the extensive commerce of Salem make communication with foreign countries by vessel easy, the soap business was largely developed, and an ex- port trade was built up by Henry Cook, then the principal manufacturer.
During the last half century of this period, the pre- paration of wool for manufacture was carried on, the wool being in part supplied by the skins used in the manufacture of morocco. William Sutton carried on the business at the brick store, on Main Street, in Poole's hollow, and the figure of a sheep, which still stands over the door, was to be seen in the same place as early as 1815. At one time Ward Poole, Jr., car- ried on the same business in another brick building, near Pierpont Street. Another wooden sheep was placed over the store in Poole's hollow, occupied by Warren M. Jacobs and Fitch Poole as a morocco-fac- tory, and this image was afterward placed on the larger factory erected by Jacobs, on Main Street. The business of " wool-pulling," as it was called, did not reach large dimensions, and was at times partially or wholly suspended.
EAST AND WEST INDIA TRADE .- At one period, during the commercial prosperity of Salem, there were a number of traders in the South Parish who did a large business in supplying dealers in the interior with imported goods, sometimes buying a whole cargo at a time for wholesale and retail trade.
Some of these merchants, who dealt principally in West India goods, had their stores on Boston Street, on the Danvers side of the road, near the big tree; there were other stores near the square, and one at least, that was carried on by Mrs. King, on the Read- ing road. With the decay of the commerce of Salem, and the change in methods of transportation, this branch of business fell into disuse, and only those stores which supplied local needs remained. The re- sults of these comparatively extensive dealings, how- ever, enriched some of the families which carried on the business.
BANKS -The Danvers Bank (now the South Dan- vers National Bank) was incorporated in 1825 with a capital of $150,000. The first president was William Sutton.
The Warren Bank (now the Warren National Bank) was incorporated in 1832 with a capital of $250,000. The first president was Jonathan Shove.
The Warren Five Cents Savings Bank was incor- porated in April, 1854.
INSURANCE .- The Danvers Mutual Fire Insurance Company (now the South Danvers Mutual Fire Insu- rance Company) was instituted in 1829. The first president was Ebenezer Shillaber. It is an extremely conservative and sound institution.
1018
HISTORY OF ESSEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.
FREEMASONRY .- Jordan Lodge, F. & A. M., was instituted in 1808.
AGRICULTURE .- The agricultural industries of the town still continued to be of importance, and in 1855 the dairy and farm products were estimated at about $128,000, of which the onion crop constituted the largest part in value, being estimated at $77,080 ..
It was stated at the Centennial celebration of Dan- vers that the whole industrial product of the town at the beginning of the century was not more than $100,000, and this is probably a large estimate.
The valuation of the whole town of Danvers in 1827 was $1,870,800. In 1855 the valuation of South Danvers was $2,944,500.
SOCIAL CHANGES .- Such a growth in the indus- tries and resources of a community must necessarily be accompanied by great changes in the social condi- tions of the inhabitants. Even with the slender his- torical material available, we can trace some of these changes.
At the beginning of this period the people of the south parish of Danvers were almost entirely of pure American blood of English descent. They were one in race, in social customs, in political traditions and religious belief. There was but one church in the parish, to which all were not only expected but compelled to contribute and which every good citizen must attend. In worldly estate there were no wide extremes, for, though some had much larger holdings of land than others, the diversity of living was not great. The distinctions of rank were punctiliously observed on important occasions, yet age was reverenced even above rank. and the Christian fellowship of the church and the pure democracy of the town meeting brought all to a common level. After the stirring events of the Rev- olution, the district settled back into its quiet ways, chiefly a farming community, and supplying from its own sons the labor necessary for carrying on the be- ginnings of its manufacturing career. For almost half a century after the Revolution the community preserved the same characteristics,-a simple and neighborly society where all were personally known, in which there were few very poor and fewer very rich ; where a foreigner was a curiosity and a vagrant liable to active inquisition. The parish system of support for the church was abandoned in 1793, and a system of pew taxation substituted ; but there was no other religious society till the Unitarians came off in 1825. In 1832 the Universalist Society was organiz- ed, and the Methodists, though they had meetings in the south parish as early as 1833, had no appointed minister till 1840. The Baptist Society completes the list of those existing in 1855, having been organized in 1843. The Quakers have never had a stated place of worship in the parish, but the many worthy and esteemed families which have held that faith have worshipped in other towns, chiefly with their brethren in Salem.
More than sixty years ago, when all the village went to the one meeting-house, and nearly all were natives of the soil, there was a familiarity of social intercourse which can exist only in such a communi- ty. Almost every individual of consequence, and some whose only distinction was their eccentricity, were commonly known by familiar names, sometimes by nicknames descriptive of some peculiarity of ap- pearance or character. Amusing hoaxes were perpe- trated on certain ones whose simplicity encouraged the attempt, and practical jokes, which sometimes verged upon rudeness, were often carried out by a se- lect band of choice spirits, among whom were some of the best known citizens, led by one or two of the keenest and most inventive of their number. Many rare stories are told by the older citizens of the jolli- ties of those times.
Then, too, there were some who cultivated a refined literary taste, and met to read and discuss original articles on literature or the topics of the times. Rufus Choate opened his first law office here, and resided in the south parish for several years, going as one of the town representatives to the General Court in 1826 and '27. He was married while living here, and left town to practice law in Salem in 1828.
He at one time delivered an address on the Waverly novels before the Literary Circle, a society including many of the active minds of the place ; and during his residence in town he twice delivered the Fourth of July oration.
With Dr. Andrew Nichols, and the Rev. Mr. Walker, and John W. Proctor, and Fitch Poole, who was then just beginning his unique literary career, with Rufus Choate, and Joshua H. Ward, and Daniel P. King, and other gifted and cultured minds, there was surely a sufficiency of literary ability to impress the social life of the parish with high ideals of thought and expression ; and the effect of the impulse which these men gave to the intellectual life of the town may still be felt. Not only in matters of literary taste, but in dealing with the great problems of the times, with intemperance, and slavery, and educational needs, the town and the parish kept always in the foremost ranks of progress.
The rapid increase of manufacturing and the severe and comparatively unskilled labor required in some departments brought about the importation of immigrant laborers. Mr. Richard Crowninshield, who carried on a woolen-mill just below the pond which bears his name, is said to have been the first to bring Irish laborers to the town. The con- struction of the railroads also brought in a foreign element of population."
With the increase of manufactures came the amas- sing of larger fortunes by some, and the increased values of real estate and the rising tide of enterprise and improvement throughout the country following the introduction of the railroad systems, gave oppor- tunities of investment which still farther increased th
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.